Improvement in apparatus for raising sunken vessels



H. F. KNAPP. Apparatus for Raisingsunken Vessels.

Patented March 17, 1874;

UNITE STA E HENRY r. KNAPP, or NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPRCWEMENT IN APPARATUS FQR RAISING SUNKEN VESSELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 148,715, dated March17, 1874; application filed July 14, 1873.

the same consisting of a needle having an attached clearing-tube, incombination with a lifting chain or chains, substantially as hereinafterdescribed. The invention likewise consists in a primary or enlargedreceiving tube or tubes, in combination with the needle to facilitatethe passage of the latter beneath the wreck.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 represents a view in perspectiveof my improvement as applied to a wreck. Fig. 2, a trans verse verticalsection upon a larger scale of a wreck, showing the needle as havingdrawn a lifting-chain under the wreck. Fig. 3 is a similar section,showing the needle used as a lifting-bar, and with lifting-chainsattached to its opposite ends. Fig. 4 is a further similar section,showing the needle as about being entered beneath the wreck, and througha primary or receiving tube to facilitate its passage. Fig.5 is alongitudinal section, upon a larger scale, of the needle with itsattached clearing-tube and hose applied thereto. Fig. 6 is a transversesection of said needle and tube on the line 00 m,- and Fig. 7, alongitudinal section of the primary or receiving tube with attached cap.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

A is what I term the needle, such term being significant of theoperation of the device, inasmuch as it is used to directly thread orpass a lifting chain or chains under the wreck S, or by connectinglifting-chains with its opposite ends, to form a lifting-bar, thelifting chain or chains in either case being an attachment to the needledirect, and an element in the combination. Said needle A should be madeof considerable stoutness, and may be provided with-an attached clearingtube, b,

which is not used as a duct for the passage of the lifting-chain or aprimary cord through it, as in my Letters Patent No. 133,863, ofDecember 10, 1872; but simply serves, by forcing water through it, toclear the way for its attached solid needle that has the lifting chainor chains attached directly to its ends. The needle A may be workedunder the wreck in various ways, but should be of suchla length that is,when using it directly as a lifting-bar as to extend beyond the sides ofthe wreck, as represented in Fig. 3, so that the lifting-chains Q G 0,attached to its ends, will clear any overlaying spars or projections,and so that the pontons or vessels employed in lifting the wreck may bearranged at a sufficient distance apart to admit of the wreck, With anyoverhanging spars or projections, being raised between the pontons, freeof contact with the latter. The attached tube 1), which runs throughoutthe length of the needle, or thereabout, may not only be open at itsends to effect clearance, and for an attachment of a hose, D, by whichwater from a force-pump, in or on one of the pontons above, is passedthrough the tube to clear a passage or soften the sand or mud for theworking of the needle beneath the wreck but said attached tube may alsohave intermediate perforations c, to further assist, by the oozing ofthe water through them, in clearing the passage for the needle. Theneedle A is formed with an eye or eyes, d, at its ends for theattachment of the lifting chain or chains 0.

When it is preferred, instead of using the needle as a lifting-bar, topass the liftin g-chain 0 attached to the needle under the wreck, orrather a series of chains at suitable distances apart in succession,then the needle A is drawn clear of the wreck and out of the water,leaving a lifting-chain, C, under the wreck, and extending upward onboth sides of the latter, united, if desired, by intermediate cross-tiesor chains, all substantially as shown in Fig. 2.

In cases where the vessel is very deeply embedded in sand or mud, orowing to other circumstances, it is difficult to pass the needle A underthe wreck, then I first introduce into the sand or mud a primary orreceiving tube, E, of larger'diameter, but shorter length than theneedle, and provided with a perforated cap or removable top, f, forattachment to a hose connected with the force-pump, whereby sand or mudmay be washed out of the receivingtube E, so as to allow of the readyinsertion within and through it of the needle A, as shown in 4. Thisprimary or receiving tube E may also be repeated or used on the otherside of the wreck for the forward end of the needle to pass through, asrepresented in Fig. 1, said primary or receiving tube, in either case,serving to relieve the needle A of friction to the extent of the lengthof said tube, in passing the needle through the sand or mud; by reasonof the clear passage established for it by the receiving tube or tubes.Said latter tube or tubes are absolutely essential when the wreck is alarge one and deeply embedded, as in such case the aggregate amount offriction on a needle of the ne- HENRY r. KNAPP.

Vitnesses EDWIN H. BROWN, MICHAEL RYAN.

